Christy Martin is a former titleholder, a Hall of Fame fighter and a pioneer of women’s boxing. This week, she will be in Las Vegas attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame event at The Orleans Hotel and Casino. The event takes place on Friday and Saturday. 

Martin, who was inducted into the IWBHOF in 2014 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota in 2020, spoke to BoxingScene ahead of the ceremony. 

BoxingScene: Who is the best you’ve ever fought?

Christy Martin: Everybody brought their A game, or A+ game, when they fought me. I don't know. Somebody that I fought way before Don King [promoted me], who was probably the most skilled fighter that I was ever in the ring with, was Jackie Holly Thomas. She was at the end of her career. I was just at the beginning of mine, and I was fortunate I caught her with a great shot and knocked her out.

She had the best skills. Her punches were so crisp, so deliberate and on target. She was probably the most skilled fighter that I fought all-around. Belinda Laracuente was a great boxer. She was moving, shaking and baking, and hard for me to track down. Laila [Ali] was huge. Laila was big. Everybody had a positive, and they brought it when they fought me.

BS: The best you ever sparred?

Martin: James Toney. I got scared to death, but I got in the ring with James Toney. I was talking with Jackie Kallen. Right before signing with Don King, I was possibly signing with her. I was in Galaxy Gym and she said, “Go in there and get in with James for a couple of rounds.” I’m like, “I just watched him hit one of his sparring partners behind the head as he walked off.” And I’m like, “I don’t want to get in with this guy.” But I did just so I could say that I sparred with James Toney.

BS: Do you have a good gym story?

Martin: These big guys would walk in off the street and think they could beat the world champion, and Jim Martin would put me in with them. For the first 30 seconds, they would actually try to knock me out, a big man, and then after 30 seconds, they’re worn out. I would be able to make them stop.

BS: What was gym culture like back then? How was it to be a female fighter? 

Martin: So when I first signed with Don King, I went to Johnny Tocco’s gym in Las Vegas. Every great champion during those days trained at Johnny’s gym. When I walked in, all the air left the gym. All the guys were like, “Oh my God.” Then I asked, “Where could I change?” No one wanted to answer me. No one would even speak to me. 

So finally, somebody said, “You’re going to have to talk to Johnny.” I did. He said the bathrooms were around the corner, and he didn’t have a choice, because [Don] King rented the gym for his fighters, and I was one of his fighters, so he had to let me train there. After a couple of sessions, Johnny Tocco ended up being my cutman for a couple of fights. I won him over because he saw how hard I worked and that I just wanted to be a fighter. It wasn’t about being a woman fighter. It was about being a fighter. 

BS: How has women’s boxing evolved?

Martin: I think that in 1996, women's boxing hit a plateau. We knocked the ceiling out on the undercard of Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno when I fought Deirdre Gogarty. We put on a hell of a fight. That got everybody talking about, “Wow, women's boxing. We didn’t know women could fight like this.” So it really gave women’s boxing a big shot in the arm. 

After a couple of years, it slowed down. Then, boom, Jake Paul comes along and puts Amanda Serrano under his wing, under his promotion, and starts blowing the top off again. Katie Taylor has a tremendous promotional group behind her with Eddie Hearn. So those fights are so good when they fight each other. So, women's boxing as a whole may not have grown as much as we would like for it to have, but there are certain little pockets here and there that some women have caught on fire.

BS: How did women being included in the Olympics help women’s boxing?

Martin: I’m sure that with the amateurs now being allowed to fight for their country, to me, that’s the ultimate thing, that you could go and represent your country. It opens up the boxing gyms to little girls. Sometimes those little girls want to go hit the bag too, and before – and when I say before, we’re talking about 30 years ago – women or girls weren’t really allowed or accepted or welcomed into boxing gyms. Now the little girls and the bigger girls are right there boxing beside their male counterparts.

BS: You have a movie coming out in the future, right?

Martin: The movie is coming out at the end of this year. Sydney Sweeney is playing me, which is pretty cool. She went to the gym. She busted her ass. She learned how to box. She already had an MMA background, so she has that competitive instinct. I think people are going to be surprised at that. It's going to be really great. It’s not a boxing movie. I call it the ultimate underdog. I’m the ultimate underdog. It deals with domestic violence, sexuality, and drug abuse. There’s a little bit of everything. There are a lot of groups that I hope this movie can touch.